Individually packaged disposable absorbent articles are well known in the art. For example, feminine sanitary napkins are often sold in such a configuration. Commercially available sanitary napkins are commonly folded in three overlapping sections along the length of the napkin (“tri-folded”) and such tri-folded napkin is arranged in a sealed pouch to thereby maintain the napkin sanitary prior to use. Sanitary napkins of this type conventionally include an adhesive arranged on a garment-facing side of the napkin (“garment attachment adhesive”) to enable the user to attach the napkin to an undergarment during use. Prior to use, the garment attachment adhesive is covered by a removable release paper that is intended to protect the adhesive and prevent the garment attachment adhesive from adhering to the pouch prior to use. Alternatively, the release paper may by omitted, and the interior surface of the pouch may include a non-stick coating (e.g. silicone) to prevent the garment attachment adhesive from adhering to the pouch. When ready for use, a user removes the napkin from the pouch, unfolds the napkin, removes the release paper (if such paper is employed) and attaches the napkin to the undergarment.
The inventors of the present invention have discovered that a problem with the above described configuration is that the user must completely remove the napkin from the pouch, and remove the release paper if such release paper is present, prior to attaching the napkin to the undergarment. The above described process can be cumbersome and may cause the user to inadvertently attach the napkin at the wrong location in the undergarment and/or contaminate the garment attachment adhesive before the user attaches the napkin to the undergarment.
In view of the foregoing, the inventors have disclosed herein an improved individually packaged absorbent article assembly that overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art assemblies described above.